


Green-Eyed Monster

by amsves



Category: Log Horizon
Genre: Awkwardness, Don't copy to another site, F/M, Jealousy, not that Shiroe knows or acknowledges that that's what he's feeling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:29:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27918259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amsves/pseuds/amsves
Summary: Akatsuki meets someone else with an interest in animals. Shiroe doesn't know why that makes him feel so weird.
Relationships: Akatsuki/Shiroe (Log Horizon)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	Green-Eyed Monster

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hypatheticallyspeaking](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hypatheticallyspeaking/gifts).



> as always i owe my soul to the log horizon wiki maintainers
> 
> also this is for hypatheticallyspeaking, who wanted this concept written (almost) as badly as i did

Akatsuki frequently went with Shiroe to Round Table meetings. All the other guild masters brought one or two members along with them, so why should Shiroe be the exception? And she had sworn to protect him and serve him as her liege, so it made sense that she be the one who accompanied him. So her being at that day’s Round Table meeting wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

What _was_ out of the ordinary, however, was that Akatsuki didn’t recognize one of the other people at the meeting. 

Woodstock’s usual right-hand man was absent, and in his place stood an Adventurer that she had never seen before. His appearance wasn’t all that unusual--brown-haired Foxtail with green eyes that were, admittedly, a bit too bright--but the fact that a Brier Weasel sat on his shoulders, curled around his neck like a feather boa, certainly was.

Against her better judgement, she had to ask. Akatsuki tiptoed silently around the edge of the meeting room, using her skills as a ninja to keep everyone’s attention off of her as she moved. Finally, she reached the Brier Weasel-wearing Foxtail, and stopped hiding her presence.

He flinched as he noticed her out of the corner of his eye. _“When did you get there?”_ he whispered curiously.

 _“Just a moment ago,”_ she replied. _“I am my liege’s personal Ninja.”_

 _“That you must be,”_ the Foxtail agreed with a smile.

Akatsuki took a moment to study his stats. He had a Western name (Shawn) written in katakana (ション), and was level 86. She read further, and learned that the Foxtail--Shawn--was a Summoner with the Animal Trainer subclass. That last item must be why he had the Brier Weasel. But she hadn’t heard anything about them being trainable …

 _“Confused?”_ Shawn asked, and it was Akatsuki’s turn to flinch. _“Far as I know, I’m the first person in Yamato to tame one of these guys. Took a lot of biting. He’s friendly now, though.”_

 _“Friendly, huh?”_ Akatsuki gingerly extended a hand in the weasel’s direction. It bared its teeth and hissed at her, and she jerked her hand back.

The sudden noise drew the attention of those seated at the table, including Akatsuki’s liege. She made her presence as unassuming as possible while Shawn smiled apologetically. The meeting continued.

Shawn fished something out his pocket and extended it to her. _“Maybe try feeding him a treat first?”_

Akatsuki took the treat and studied it. It appeared to be a kind of berry she recognized from the forest outside Akiba. _“Hey, little guy, you like these?”_

The weasel stared her down for a long moment, unsure if she was to be trusted, before ultimately deciding the treat was worth it. He grabbed it with tiny paws and shoved it in his mouth. Then, he leaned his head forward into Akatsuki’s hand, as if asking her to pet him.

That was honestly amazing. Akatsuki hadn’t thought much of Animal Trainers before the Catastrophe; animal companions could be useful in battle, but they usually just died before they justified the effort put in to train them. But now, when Adventurers truly inhabited their bodies, training had become simultaneously more difficult, more intimidating, and _much_ more rewarding. Imagine what an army of these trained weasels could do!

Akatsuki took a moment to picture her liege commanding said army of weasels, and couldn’t stop herself from giggling. 

She felt Shiroe’s gaze on her, but thankfully the meeting continued uninterrupted. Akatsuki turned her attention back to Shawn. _“Does he have a name?”_

_“Brad.”_

_“Brad the Brier Weasel,”_ Akatsuki repeated. _“Well, it is nice to formally meet your acquaintance. Both of yours,”_ she added with a glance at Brad’s owner. _“So, a Foxtail, Summoner, Animal Trainer, and you have a pet weasel? You must really love animals.”_

_“That I do. I’m highly allergic back on Earth, but here, my allergies didn’t carry over. Good thing.”_

_“I can see how that could be inconvenient.”_

Akatsuki brought the hand that had been petting Brad back to brush a piece of hair out of her face. A foul smell filled the air, and she wrinkled her nose. 

_“Yeah, they don’t smell great,”_ Shawn conceded. _“I should really try giving him a bath, but I’m not sure if that would have any effect. And anyways, I don’t know the first thing about bathing an animal.”_

 _“Well, you might be in luck, Shawn,”_ Akatsuki said with a smile, returning her hand to Brad’s head, _“Because I was studying animal care before all this. I’m going to guess that bathing a Brier Weasel is like dealing with a cat with particularly sharp claws.”_

_“Really? You’d help me?”_

Akatsuki nodded once. _“If my liege allows it, I would be happy to help.”_

 _“Your liege, huh.”_ Shawn paused for a moment, like he was checking her stats. _“Log Horizon, so you mean the Villain in Glasses? He’s pretty intense.”_

Akatsuki felt a little indignant hearing that, but Shiroe _was_ pretty intense, so she let it slide. _“He saved me right after the Catastrophe,”_ she said instead.

 _“Is that so. Well, hopefully the Villain will agree. I’m sure things will go much better with you around.”_ Brad chittered in agreement, drawing eyes again, and Akatsuki held her breath.

But nothing happened. She breathed a sigh of relief. _“Well, as soon as they finish, I shall ask. In the meantime, would you mind telling me about how you trained Brad?”_

* * *

It was embarrassingly difficult to focus on the Round Table proceedings. Shiroe did his best to stay on task, but every time he heard that Foxtail whisper, or Akatsuki giggle, or that weasel make any sort of weasel noise (how did he train a _Brier Weasel_ to begin with?), his attention was stolen away from the matter at hand. He was aware he was being extremely unprofessional, but he couldn’t help it.

When they finally wrapped up the last order of business, Shiroe practically jumped out of his chair, and walked over to where Akatsuki was talking to the Adventurer with the weasel. They were so engrossed in whatever they were whispering about that neither of them even noticed his approach until he was practically stepping on their toes. “Good conversation?”

Akatsuki snapped to attention. “My liege! I apologize, I didn’t know the meeting was done so soon.”

Shiroe felt his already sour mood get a smidgen worse. “We ran long today, actually.” He turned to the weasel man. “I think I recognize you. You were one of the Animal Trainers who flew supplies to the front line during the Zantleaf operation, right?”

The Foxtail (Shawn, spelled in Katakana, like he was some kind of Western _celebrity_ ) looked surprised that Shiroe knew who he was. “Uh, yeah. I was.”

“What was your mount?”

“Giant Owl.”

Shiroe hummed, pretending to think before he spoke again. “Both your subclass and your actions back then require an abundance of bravery. Perhaps almost a foolish amount.” He smiled. “But nevertheless, thank you for your service.”

“My liege,” Akatsuki cut in, “Would it be alright if I accompanied Shawn and Woodstock to the Grandale guild hall?”

Shiroe blinked. “Why?”

“She offered to help me bathe Brad,” Shawn explained, running a hand over the weasel’s (Brad, presumably) head. “He needs it.” 

Something wasn’t clicking. Why did Shawn need _Akatsuki’s_ help? Why not someone from his own guild?

He must have looked as confused as he felt, because Shawn smiled in a way that made Shiroe’s blood boil. “She’s got the real-world knowledge that I’m lacking. Your guild member graciously volunteered her services as an animal care expert.”

“Not an expert,” Akatsuki corrected. “I’m still in training.”

“You know more than me, though.”

“I still have a lot to learn.”

“Fine,” Shiroe said, putting their banter to rest. “You can go. If Woodstock agrees. I wouldn’t want it to be an intrusion.”

“He’ll agree,” Shawn said confidently, and Shiroe had the strangest urge to _Thorn-Bind Hostage_ right then and there. “Thanks, Villain.”

Akatsuki bowed, and the two of them walked towards the exit of the meeting room, where Woodstock was waiting. Shiroe watched them go, wondering why he felt so out of sorts. He didn’t have any special assignments for Akatsuki to carry out at the moment, and he knew she would fly back home the moment he called. Something about Shawn rubbed him the wrong way, but Shiroe respected Grandale, and he knew Woodstock wouldn’t have any unsavory characters in his guild. So why …?

A woman appeared on either side of him. The one on his right spoke first. “Hey, Shiroe, what was _that_ all about?”

Shiroe fixed his glasses. “I don’t know why you said it like that, Marielle. Akatsuki is doing Grandale a favor, and was asking permission, that’s all.”

“But that’s not quite the whole truth,” Henrietta (on his left) countered, ever-perceptive, “Because normally, you wouldn’t look so angry over something like a favor willingly provided.”

“I’m not angry.”

Marielle and Henrietta gave him a flat look, like they didn’t believe him for a second. Shiroe glanced around the meeting room, which was now thankfully empty except for the three of them, and sighed. “I’m _not_ angry. I’m just annoyed.”

“At what, exactly?” 

“I just--they were whispering and the weasel was making noises and it was just distracting. That’s all.”

“That doesn’t really explain why you put on your Villain face when you went to talk to that Foxtail after the meeting though,” Henrietta pointed out. “I think there’s something more you’re not telling us.”

Marielle squeezed Shiroe’s shoulder. “You can confide in us, ya know! Or else we’ll just drag the secrets outta ya. It’s all the same to me, really.”

“Okay, first of all, his name is Shawn. We don’t need to keep calling him _the Foxtail_. And second of all, there’s nothing to confide!” Shiroe wrenched his shoulder out of Marielle’s grip. “I appreciate you both, but it’s fine. I’m fine, Akatsuki’s fine, Shawn’s fine, everything is absolutely fine.”

“So you’re jealous.”

“Mari, were you listening to me at all just now?”

Henrietta shook her head, and he saw a coy smile snake its way across her lips. “No, Shiroe, I think she’s right about this one. You’re all out of sorts because Akatsuki wanted to spend time with someone who wasn’t you.”

“That’s ridiculous.” Shiroe started walking towards the door. “I’ll see you both tomorrow.”

“You should be proud of her!” Marielle called after him. “She needs to branch out and make new friends!”

Shiroe didn’t reply. He kept a straight face as he walked down the stairs and out of the Guild Building, before finally ducking around the side and letting his composure fall. He ran a hand through his hair and then squeezed his hands into tight fists until his fingernails threatened to cut the skin of his palms. Then he released them, and took a deep breath. 

“What is wrong with me today,” he said to no one in particular. “I’m being ridiculous.”

It was Marielle’s accusation, really, that was causing him to get all worked up. There was nothing wrong, and she was just making drama where there wasn’t any. 

Right?

“Right,” he said out loud. It didn’t sound convincing, even to him.

But standing outside the Guild Building and getting lost in his own thoughts wasn’t doing him any good. So Shiroe started to walk back to Log Horizon, the path feeling just a little too wide and empty without someone beside him.

* * *

The walk did little to clear his head, and Shiroe still felt like his insides were all knotted up by the time he reached his room and sat down at his desk. Maybe a little paperwork (he laughed to himself at his own joke--there was never a _little_ paperwork) would do the trick?

It did not, as he soon found out. Shiroe could _see_ the forms, letters, and various other documents sitting on his desk in front of him, and he _knew_ that they needed to be addressed, and he knew _how_ he should go about doing that, but he just couldn’t make his fingers form words. His quill left an ink blot on the top sheet of parchment from being idle too long, and it bled through to the sheets below it as well.

He groaned in frustration and leaned back in his chair. “I’m going out of my mind.”

That was a gross exaggeration, but it was how he felt. Shiroe returned to an upright position and grabbed his quill. He would get through this.

He dipped the quill in ink again, and brought it to the first page. _The …_

Forty-two minutes later, when Akatsuki climbed in through his window, he hadn’t written more than a paragraph.

He slipped the paper he had been ‘working’ on underneath another sheet to conceal his embarrassing lack of progress. “Akatsuki. Hello. How was bathing the weasel?”

“It didn’t help much,” she admitted, “But now he smells like a bed of disgusting roses, instead of simply disgusting.”

“That’s … well, at least you tried.” Why did he feel so _awkward?_ Everything was normal. “So, Shawn mentioned that you had the ‘real-world knowledge’ that he lacked? What did he mean?”

Akatsuki traced a finger along the windowsill. “Back on Earth … my sister said I would be a good pet groomer, since it didn’t involve much talking with other people. I didn’t have any other aspirations, so I started studying animal care.”

“Oh.” That felt like a woefully inadequate reaction, but Shiroe didn’t know what else to say. Truth be told, he had never considered that Akatsuki might love animals (other than that one Goat Slime they kept around). Really, he had never considered what she liked at all back home, or what she wanted to be, or whether she had dreams and goals. It was embarrassing to realize how little depth he had given her as a person. “Um … was it fun, at least?”

“The studying, or bathing the weasel?”

“Both?”

Akatsuki hummed in thought. “I didn’t mind studying, but since I chose it on Hibiki’s recommendation, I wasn’t especially devoted to it. And today was fun, yes.” She turned to him and smiled slightly. “I think I might even be able to call Shawn a friend now.”

“Good,” he said, even though that word felt like poison. “I’m happy for you.”

Akatsuki’s smile disappeared, and she studied him with stern eyes. “My liege, is something wrong?”

He sighed. “I was just thinking--yes, I know I do that too much, you don’t have to remind me--and I was wondering, do you like being in Log Horizon?”

The question caught Akatsuki visibly off guard. “What brought this on, my liege?”

“Well, I--I don’t want you to stay here because you feel obligated, that’s all.” Shiroe could feel his face heating up. “If you wanted to join Woodstock, or Crescent Moon, or D.D.D., I wouldn’t want you to feel trapped.”

“If I joined another guild, my effectiveness as your personal ninja would be severely compromised.”

This wasn’t working. Shiroe could feel the words he wanted to _say_ , the questions he wanted to _ask_ , the things he wanted to _know_ , all heavy on his tongue. But he couldn’t force them out; if he tried, he feared they would come out garbled and wrong. He clenched a fist discreetly under his desk to try and get his emotions, which were once again threatening to spiral, under control. “What if you … weren’t my personal ninja anymore?”

That was apparently the wrong thing to say. Akatsuki’s eyes instantly became shiny, like they were filled with tears, and she took a step back. “My liege … are you _firing_ me?”

“No!”

“Do you not want me around anymore?” she asked, and then added, voice softer this time, “Am I an embarrassment to you?”

“ _Definitely_ not,” he replied, trying to reassure her while mentally berating himself. He had _known_ that trying to force the words out would mess everything up. “I just wanted to say, I never considered you in my debt. If at any time, you get tired of always tagging along with me, you can consider the matter of the Appearance Reset Potion a thing of the past. It was a gesture of goodwill, not a transaction. On my end, at least.”

Akatsuki seemed to take a moment to consider his words. She turned back towards the still-open window. A gentle breeze was teasing the curtains. Gingerly, she took hold of one, worrying it between her thumb and forefinger. “... I like being here, in Log Horizon,” she said at last. “I don’t think I’ll get tired of you, not for a long time.”

A weight that Shiroe hadn’t noticed in his chest suddenly went missing. It was like he could breathe again after being underwater, and he hadn’t even noticed he was drowning. “Okay,” he said, voice barely a whisper. “That’s fine with me.”

There was a moment of silence, and Shiroe felt too awkward to break it. Akatsuki appeared to feel the same way. Finally, there was a knock on the door. “Master Shiroe?”

“You can come in, Minori,” Shiroe answered, feeling conflicted as he did so. On the one hand, he had no idea what the atmosphere in his room was, but it wasn’t good. Minori’’s presence would dissolve the tension quickly. But on the other hand, it felt like they were close to _something_. He wasn’t sure what, but his gut said they had brushed against a topic that neither wanted to discuss, and yet simultaneously one that desperately needed to be out in the open. But what was it?

That would have to be a matter for another time, he decided, as Minori pushed the door open. 

“Oh, Akatsuki is here, too. I wanted to ask if you had a preference for dinner tonight. Chief Nyanta is about to go shopping.”

Shiroe always had a preference. “Well, you know I could never say _no_ to his curry.” Akatsuki visibly perked up at the mention of the chief’s cooking. “Sound good to you, too?”

“Always,” she said, and for some reason, the word felt like it had a heaviness behind it. Maybe Shiroe was overthinking things. He was good at that.

Still, as Minori bowed and left, and Akatsuki followed suit, Shiroe’s mood had significantly improved from the Round Table meeting earlier that day. He adjusted his gaze to the window and watched the curtains sway lightly. There was a spot on the white fabric that was slightly different from the rest, where Akatsuki had pinched and creased it. 

He didn’t stop himself from smiling, though he didn’t quite know why.

**Author's Note:**

> gotta cite my sources!  
> https://log-horizon.fandom.com/wiki/Animal_Trainer  
> https://log-horizon.fandom.com/wiki/Brier_Weasel  
> https://log-horizon.fandom.com/wiki/Summoner  
> https://log-horizon.fandom.com/wiki/Akatsuki  
> https://www.shmoop.com/shakespeare-quotes/jealousy-green-eyed-monster/meaning-then.html
> 
> Find me and request bingo squares on Tumblr (I’m @therewillbebeauty)! I'm playing both Fluff Bingo and Bad Things Happen Bingo, so I can either torture or pamper your fave--or both!


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